COOL ICE - CONE 6 - PORCELAIN CLAY

Mark, you really can. I make whiskey cups with porcelain ice cubes. You keep the porcelain cubes in the freezer and use them like regular ice cubes. It cools your whiskey almost as well as ice cubes and, best of all, it doesn't dilute good whiskey.

Jim

Great idea. Do you glaze them?

Diane... No, the porcelain "ice cubes" aren't glazed. I can't put a picture into a post so I have to put them in my profile gallery (and will delete them after a while). Here is a picture of two whiskey cups with cubes: http://ceramicartsda...wimage&img=2705

Belive it or not frogs in the bottom of drinking vessels are vary popular. I have never made one but have seen many.I like the fish ice cubes-I think you have something there.Mark

Yeah, I've seen them, too. But they're not used as ice cubes. They are attached to the bottom of the cup to surprise the drinker. I saw one one that had a fairly realistic-looking spider in the bottom.

Laguna's source for Frost is in Ohio at Byersville just off I-70. I picked up 1000 pounds there when I was driving back to Montana with my van.
So I don't think there will be a problem about having a source...at least not for a while.

Well, I'm sad to say that Seattle Pottery Supply doesn't have any Frost at the moment, and Claudia who works there said she wasn't sure if they were temporarily out of it or if they're not going to stock it anymore. I broke down and bought one bag of Cool Ice, but man oh man I hope I don't like it. It's over 5 times as expensive as my usual porcelain!
I was there right before closing and they were really busy. I asked if they had Joe Finch's book of kiln construction, but they didn't know offhand and didn't have time to check. Sorry!

I think you will be disappointed in Cool Ice. It is Southern Ice formulated for cone 6 but it is not as translucent as Frost. Seattle Pottery Supply is one of the best stocked ceramic supply stores in the country. I even have to sometimes order from them even though shipping from WA to GA is a killer because no one else has what I'm looking for. Unless Laguna stops making Frost, I find it hard to believe SPS plans to stop stocking it. The cone 6 porcelain you use (I forget the name) is the only clay I know of that looks like from the pictures you've posted to be as translucent (or maybe even more translucent--which will turn my world upside down!) as Frost.

Jim

Jim was correct about my disappointment with Cool Ice. I haven't been back to SPS yet to see if they have Frost back in stock, as I just finally got around to testing the Cool Ice, and got a couple pieces out of the kiln last weekend. Here's a photo of two tumblers, NZ6 on the left and Cool Ice on the right. They're the same thickness, and they're side by side in the same amount of sun, I swear. The difference is stunning.

When I was in Tacoma they were out of the NZ6 so I have had to order it from my local supplier at almost double the price, it came in last week so I can't wait to try it as I have another trip planed to go down south in August. If it works as well for me as it did for Heidi I will coming back with a car full!

I don't mix my own glazes yet, and many of the glazes I use are made at Seattle Pottery Supply. All of the glazes I have from there fit fine except my favorite, shadow green, which doesn't fit at all (the glaze cracks and will either chip off the piece or crack the clay if the clay is thin).

Amaco's PC Ancient Jasper doesn't seem to fit it (though I only tested it on one pair of earrings - the glaze cracked off the earrings), Laguna's Caribbean Crackle crackled to the point that it cracked the bowl I used as a tester, and Coyote's Gun Metal Green sometimes fits it. The first two tests were just at the rim over clear, and it seemed to fit fine (though with a smooth crackle effect), and then the third time it got so crackly that it gave the piece a hairline crack. I forgot that and used it again since, and it worked out beautifully (without the clear underneath it, and it didn't crackle), so more testing is needed with that one.

jim, the store associated with Clay Times in Hamilton, va is closing since Polly Beach is moving to st augustine, fl. on your recommendation, i bought 100 pounds of frost since it was half price. there were 2 bags left when i closed the store yesterday, saturday. it is still open today and will be tomorrow. do you want to contact them to purchase the last of the Frost? the number is 540-338-4249. see www.theartspot.co there is no 'm' BUT MAYBE THAT IS A TYPO. oh, cropp. caps lock again.

Wow! Thank you, oldlady. That's very nice of you. I'll call them but the shipping will probably negate the savings. If Heidi wants it (Let me know, Heidi), she can have first dibs but I think she is in the Northwest and the shipping for her would really be a killer.

Chris and I disagree on which porcelain, Frost of Southern Ice, is the most translucent. Southern Ice is a beautiful clay that is a dream to handle but I think Frost is just a little bit more translucent. Cool Ice is supposed to be Southern Ice for cone 6. It is not nearly as translucent as Frost or NZ6. I hope you like Frost. My old pottery professor saw one of my Frost bowls at a show and the next time he saw me he said "Where the hell did you learn to throw glass!" Let me know what you think of it.

was there some question about a bad batch of frost? i haven't found anyone to help get the boxes into the studio yet ( the strong young men avoid going past my house) and i do not know how long it was at the store. if there is a date of manufacture on the box i can check with the maker to see if it is a good or a bad one.

was there some question about a bad batch of frost? i haven't found anyone to help get the boxes into the studio yet ( the strong young men avoid going past my house) and i do not know how long it was at the store. if there is a date of manufacture on the box i can check with the maker to see if it is a good or a bad one.

I bought the bad Frost several years ago. I bought a lot of it so it lasted a long time. I doubt yours is from that batch. If you throw a couple of mugs with it and the bottom cracks no matter how much you compress and work the bottom, then you have a bad batch that you can only fix by putting a little paper in it.

I don't mix my own glazes yet, and many of the glazes I use are made at Seattle Pottery Supply. All of the glazes I have from there fit fine except my favorite, shadow green, which doesn't fit at all (the glaze cracks and will either chip off the piece or crack the clay if the clay is thin).

Amaco's PC Ancient Jasper doesn't seem to fit it (though I only tested it on one pair of earrings - the glaze cracked off the earrings), Laguna's Caribbean Crackle crackled to the point that it cracked the bowl I used as a tester, and Coyote's Gun Metal Green sometimes fits it. The first two tests were just at the rim over clear, and it seemed to fit fine (though with a smooth crackle effect), and then the third time it got so crackly that it gave the piece a hairline crack. I forgot that and used it again since, and it worked out beautifully (without the clear underneath it, and it didn't crackle), so more testing is needed with that one.

Thanks very much for taking the time to write all this! Sounds like you are getting dunting/shivering from several of the glazes you tried. Did Tacaoma Clayart offer any suggestions as to glaze coe? (You might be able to add some high expansion frit to your shadow green and the other dunting glazes to help fit but then you would probably have to tinker with the alumina and silica also.) It's unusual for commercial glazes to dunt, usually they err on the side of caution and use a higher coe. Is there a chance that the glaze layer was thicker than the clay, especially with the Caribbean Crackle or shadow green?